SALIENT DETAILS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 October 1943, Page 4

SALIENT DETAILS

OF AUSTRALIA’S WAR EFFORT OVER 6i,500 CASUALTIES. FIGHTING SERVICE & INDUSTRY. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) CANBERRA, This Day. The casualties suffered by the Australian armed services from the beginning of the war to August 31, 1943, numbered 61,564. Of these, 13,908 were killed in action or died of wounds, 14,708 were wounded, 20,823 taken prisoner, and 12,131 posted missing. The total of Royal Australian Navy casualties not previously released is 2,368. These are included in the official figures of the Commonwealth’s war effort just announced. Since the outbreak of the Pacific war, Allied air forces in the South-West Pacific area have destroyed 1,539 Japanese aircraft, probably destroyed 493, and damaged 581. Australian service men in this war have won 4,048 awards and decorations. These include eleven Victoria Crosses. Of the total of 2.529,000 males now occupied, 842,000, or nearly one-third, have been enlisted in the fighting [forces; 1,531,000. or 60 per cent, are engaged in direct or indirect war work, and only 117,000, or under 5 per cent, continue to produce factory-made goods for civilian needs. From Australia’s total of 2,823,000 males of fourteen years and over, 2,529,000, or 86 per cent, are either fighting, doing direct war jobs, or in civilian employment. By the end of September the war had cost Australia £1,247,000,000, or about £6OO a minute. During September, Australian war expenditure was £1,754,000 a day, or £1,218 a minute. Expenditure on the Royal Australian Air Force since the war began has been more than £224,000,000.